Overview
The transistor is the most important invention of the 20th century. In digital computing, it acts as a tiny, high-speed switch that represents the binary states of 0 and 1.
Basic Operation
A transistor typically has three terminals: a Source, a Drain, and a Gate. Applying a voltage to the gate controls the flow of current between the source and the drain.
Evolution
- Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT): The early standard.
- MOSFET: The dominant type used in modern integrated circuits.
- FinFET / GAAFET: Advanced 3D designs used in modern sub-10nm nodes.
Scale
Modern processors contain billions of transistors, each only a few nanometers in size.